I cannot install any tools like screen or xproc on the box. I dont need to modify the title, I only need to find the window title name.
echo -e "\033]0;[title]\07"; modifies the title I know. But I just want to know the existing title name.
2 Answers
Try the following, but notice that the compatibility is pretty limited. See the notes below.
get_title(){( set -e ss=`stty -g`; trap 'exit 11' INT QUIT TERM; trap 'stty "$ss"' EXIT e=`printf '\033'`; st=`printf '\234'`; t= stty -echo -icanon min 0 time "${2:-2}" printf "${1:-\033[21t}" > "`tty`" while c=`dd bs=1 count=1 2>/dev/null` && [ "$c" ]; do t="$t$c" case "$t" in $e*$e\\|$e*$st) t=${t%$e\\}; t=${t%$st}; printf '%s\n' "${t#$e\][lL]}"; exit 0;; $e*);; *) break;; esac done printf %s "$t"; exit 1 )} Example:
$ get_title $ title=`get_title` Or, if your script's stdin is not the terminal:
$ title=`get_title </dev/tty` The stty + dd kludge tries to make sure that the script won't just block if the terminal doesn't report anything in response to the \e[21t escape. This (or a better) approach could be also used with other control sequences (eg. to get the cursor position).
Notes:
Since the \e[21t escape is considered "insecure", extra configuration is needed in order to make it work:
For xterm: echo '*.vt100.allowWindowOps: true' | xrdb -override
For urxvt: echo 'Rxvt.insecure: true' | xrdb -override
It will not work at all in vte-based terminals like gnome-terminal, mate-terminal, xfce4-terminal, etc, since they report either a fake ("Terminal") or empty title in response.
mlterm doesn't need anything special, but it will crash (!) if the title wasn't set before with \e]2;TITLE\a (that bug was fixed in the current sources).
screen will report its own window title (the one that was set with the -t option or the C-a A command, not the title of the window it's running in.
It's blocked and not supported in tmux.
- 1Thank you very much for your help. Much appreciatedBootham Deyyam– Bootham Deyyam2018-12-03 23:09:28 +00:00Commented Dec 3, 2018 at 23:09
- @Bootham_Deyyam , since it appears that this answer works for you, you should mark it as correct (click the check mark under the votes). In my opinion, you should also up-vote it. This is a great solution.bballdave025– bballdave0252020-04-24 19:11:35 +00:00Commented Apr 24, 2020 at 19:11
For example, getting the title of konsole window current interactive bash instance is running in:
#!/bin/bash get_title() { local pid=$$ local pids=`pstree -lpsT $pid | tr '-' '\n' | tac | xargs | grep -oE '[0-9]+'` for pid in $pids do local wid=`xdotool search --pid $pid` if [ ! -z "${wid}" ] then echo `xdotool getwindowname $wid` exit fi done } get_title 
- but wrong title if run in ssh..yurenchen– yurenchen2024-07-30 01:31:50 +00:00Commented Jul 30, 2024 at 1:31
printf '\e[21t'should cause your terminal to return its title in the form\e]title\e\\. I'll try to wrap that in a script if they don't delete your question until then.